Planning for NASA's 2020 Mars rover envisions a basic structure that capitalizes on re-using the design and engineering work done for the NASA rover Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012, but with new science instruments selected through competition for accomplishing different science objectives with the 2020 mission.

Planning for NASA's 2020 Mars rover envisions a basic structure that capitalizes on the design and engineering work done for the NASA rover Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012, but with new science instruments selected through competition for accomplishing different science objectives.

This artist's sketch is loosely based on the Curiosity rover in NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. Mission planners would potentially leverage aspects of this rover design for a Mars mission designed to launch in 2020.

This artist's concept is loosely based on the Curiosity rover in NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. Mission planners would potentially leverage aspects of this rover design for a Mars mission designed to launch in 2020.

The image shows a very tall, wide, dish-shaped device that is about three times as wide and as tall as the two-story dome that supports it. Four metal ladderlike extensions form a pyramidal structure topped by a box-like frame used for transmission and reception. The entire array is pointed skyward. In the background is a partly cloudy, blue sky above sagebrush-covered desert hills.